Trump to speak on elections as sources say he'll raise allegations about China

• What: President Trump speaks astatine the White House
• Date: Thursday, July 16, 2026  
• Time: 9 p.m. ET
• Location: Washington, D.C.
• Online stream: Live connected CBS News successful the video subordinate supra and connected your mobile oregon streaming device
• A squad of CBS News correspondents and contributors volition beryllium providing investigation and discourse pursuing the president's remarks.

Mr. Trump has made the SAVE America Act his apical legislative priority. The president and his allies successful Congress person held different items connected the GOP's docket hostage implicit Senate Republicans' inability to walk the voting regulations bill. 

The measure would instrumentality strict caller requirements for registering to ballot and casting ballots, which critics person warned would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. 

The SAVE America Act would necessitate voters to amusement impervious successful idiosyncratic of U.S. citizenship, similar a passport oregon commencement certificate, to registry to ballot successful national elections. The measurement besides has a request that voters amusement a photograph ID to formed a ballot. The photograph ID indispensable besides incorporate impervious of citizenship, according to the measure.

The House has passed assorted versions of the authorities and has vowed to connect it to different must-pass measures earlier sending them to the Senate. However, the voting regulations measure lacks adjacent a elemental bulk of enactment successful the precocious chamber. 

Mr. Trump besides wants to adhd different Republican priorities to the measure, similar bans connected mail-in voting and transgender athletes' information successful women's sports. 

Republicans person touted the measurement arsenic a tenable mode to forestall noncitizens from casting ballots, though instances of noncitizens voting are exceedingly rare.

When U.S. quality agencies look astatine attempts by overseas countries to meddle successful elections, they gully a favoritism betwixt "election influence" and "election interference."

Election power covers attempts by overseas governments to impact who voters determine to ballot for, including by promoting oregon denigrating definite candidates, spreading mendacious claims oregon sowing distrust. Election interference includes attempts to change method parts of the predetermination process, similar the casting of ballots, the vote-counting process oregon elector registrations.

In aboriginal 2021, the National Intelligence Council recovered that respective countries attempted to power the 2020 contention without interfering successful predetermination processes. Russia tried to undermine the Biden campaign, Iran tried to undermine the Trump campaign, and Venezuela, Hezbollah and Cuba whitethorn person tried immoderate smaller-scale strategies to denigrate Mr. Trump.

But the National Intelligence Council recovered "no indications" that overseas countries "attempted to change immoderate method facet of the voting process" during the 2020 election, including ballot-casting, vote-counting oregon registrations. 

Experts person agelong argued it would beryllium highly hard for anybody to propulsion disconnected predetermination interference astatine a ample standard since U.S. elections are heavy decentralized, with thousands of counties and cities liable for registering voters, moving polling places and counting votes.

"We measure that it would beryllium hard for a overseas histrion to manipulate predetermination processes astatine standard without detection by quality postulation connected the actors themselves, done carnal and cyber information monitoring astir voting systems crossed the country, oregon successful post-election audits," the National Intelligence Council said successful a 2021 report.

The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security also recovered successful 2021 that determination was "no grounds that immoderate overseas government-affiliated histrion prevented voting, changed votes, oregon disrupted the quality to tally votes oregon to transmit predetermination results successful a timely manner."

The question of China's engagement successful the 2020 predetermination has been the taxable of immoderate statement — but U.S. quality agencies person said China didn't effort to interfere successful the predetermination connected a method level.

In aboriginal 2021, astir of the U.S. quality assemblage assessed that China did not effort to power the result of the election, with Beijing deciding neither a Biden nor a Trump triumph was "advantageous capable for China to hazard getting caught meddling." While China has tried to power U.S. authorities to beforehand its presumption of the world, it stayed connected the sidelines of the 2020 race, according to a March 2021 study by the National Intelligence Council.

But the study notes a "minority view" from the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber, who believed China did instrumentality astatine slightest immoderate steps to "undermine" the Trump campaign, mostly done societal media posts, authoritative statements and different power campaigns.

However, the full quality assemblage — including the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber — agreed that China did not "interfere with predetermination infrastructure, including ballot tabulation oregon the transmission of predetermination results."

Separately, the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber found successful April 2020 that Chinese quality "analyzed aggregate U.S. states' … predetermination elector registration data," according to a study that was declassified successful 2022 but is heavy redacted. The extremity was to "conduct nationalist sentiment investigation connected the 2020 U.S. wide election."

It isn't wide however China accessed the elector information oregon however delicate it was. In galore states, elector registration accusation is disposable to the nationalist oregon tin beryllium purchased, and if China obtained elector data, it doesn't mean predetermination processes were impacted.

President Trump has ne'er acknowledged that helium mislaid to Joe Biden successful 2020, and has agelong insisted the predetermination was riven with fraud — though nary grounds has emerged of fraud connected a standard indispensable to alteration the result of the election.

Shortly aft the election, the Trump run and its allies filed dozens of lawsuits challenging votes successful virtually each plaything state, almost each of which were rejected. Then-Attorney General William Barr besides said prosecutors and FBI agents didn't find grounds of wide fraud.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the 2020 predetermination "the astir unafraid successful American history" and noted: "There is nary grounds that immoderate voting strategy deleted oregon mislaid votes, changed votes, oregon was successful immoderate mode compromised."

Several cardinal states besides conducted their ain audits and investigations successful the years pursuing the 2020 election, and did not uncover grounds of sweeping elector fraud.